Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound, official journal of Korean Society of Echocardiography publishes articles related to research in and the practice of cardiovascular ultrasound, including observational studies, clinical trials, epidemiology, health services and outcomes studies, and advances in applied (translational) and basic research. And this journal publishes 4 times a year (March 27, June 27, September 27 and December 27).

Manuscripts are examined by the editorial staff and usually evaluated by expert reviewers assigned by the editors. Both clinical and basic articles will also be subject to statistical review, when appropriate. Provisional or final acceptance is based on originality, scientific content, and topical balance of the journal. Decisions are communicated by email, generally within six weeks. Decisions regarding acceptance for publication are made by the editors.

Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound publishes several types of manuscripts under the umbrella of full-length articles. A brief description of each type follows.

Original Research Articles

Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound considers all types of original research articles, including experiments conducted in human subjects, laboratory animals, and in vitro.

Review Series

Please note that the editors invite most review articles. However, unsolicited material will be considered for publication.

Contemporary Reviews in Cardiovascular Ultrasound: Reviews will focus on topics of contemporary interest to the clinician.

Basic Science for Clinicians: Articles will include cutting edge reviews of the scientific basis of cardiovascular ultrasound. Emphasis will be placed on the practical application or translation of a contemporary understanding of basic knowledge to clinical practice.

Controversies in Cardiovascular Ultrasound: Controversial topics in the practice of cardiovascular ultrasound will be presented in this series. Opposite viewpoints will be presented in tandem, with rebuttal responses by both authors included.

New Technologies: Reviews published in this series will focus on cardiovascular ultrasound technologies and therapeutic strategies relevant to the practice of contemporary cardiovascular medicine.

Case Report

We have decided not to publish Case Report any more. Please, DO NOT use a different category to submit a Case Report. No submissions will be accepted after September 1, 2016.

Images in Cardiovascular Ultrasound

Clinical or basic science images that illustrate important findings, provide insight into basic mechanisms responsible for cardiovascular disease, emphasize an abnormality, or elucidate a new technology will be considered for publication in print.

The number of authors is limited up to 10 persons. The written portion of the submission should include a title page, descriptive text of no more than two paragraphs, a maximum of 4 images and figures (total), and up to 5 references.

Letters to the Editor

Letters pertaining directly to an article published in the journal within the preceding 8 weeks will be considered for publication either in print or online. A letter must not exceed 400 words in length and must be limited to three authors and five references. They should not have tables or figures. Authors of the original article cited in the letter will be invited to reply. Letters to the editor should be submitted via the online manuscript submission process as described below.

Editorial

Editorials typically address broad topics and present a point of view. These articles are only invited by the editors, and they will undergo peer review.

General Preparation Instructions:

Use Microsoft Word program.

Maximum Word Length in abstract: 250 words

Maximum Number of References: 50

Maximum Number of Figures and Figure Legends: 8

Manuscript should be typed in English and double-spaced, including title page, abstract, text, references, figure legends, and tables.

Size of letters - 12 point (Times New Roman)

Leave 3.5 cm margin on upper side and 3.0 cm margin on lower and lateral side.

Use SI units of measure. A more conventionally used measurement may follow in parentheses. Make all conversions before manuscript submission.

Please provide sex-specific and/or racial/ethnic-specific data when appropriate, in describing the outcomes of epidemiologic analyses or clinical trials; or specifically state that no sex-based or racial/ethnic-based differences were present.

Manuscripts must conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org/).

Title Page

The title page should contain these elements:

Full title of manuscript, in capital letters

First author’s surname and short title (not to exceed 50 characters, including spaces)

Authors names, academic degrees, and affiliations

Running title (Maximum 50 characters including space)

Word counts of abstract and manuscript (does not include references, figures, and tables)

Name and complete address for correspondence (include street name and address as well as post office box, and address for reprints if different from correspondence)

Fax number, telephone number and email address

A conflict of interest statement (see CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURES)

Abstract and Key Words

Do not cite references in the abstract

Limit use of acronyms and abbreviations. Define at first use acronym or abbreviation in parenthesis

Be concise (250 words maximum)

Use the following headings:

Background - rationale for study

Methods and Results - brief presentation of methods and presentation of significant results

Conclusions - succinct statement of data interpretation

Insert three to five Key Words after abstract. Please refer to the key word list in MeSH (Medical Subject Headings).

Text

Typical main headings include INTRODUCTION, METHODS, RESULTS, AND DISCUSSION

Number pages in the center of lower side

Abbreviations must be defined at first mention in text and in each table and figure.

Methods

Experimental animals: State the species, strain, number used, and pertinent descriptive characteristics. When describing surgical procedures, identify the preanesthetic and anesthetic agents used and the amounts, concentrations, routes, and frequency of administration of each. Paralytic agents are not considered acceptable substitutes for anesthetics. For other invasive procedures on animals, report the analgesic or tranquilizing drug used. If none were used, provide justification for exclusion.

Human studies: Indicate that the study was approved by an institutional review committee and that the subjects gave informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article.

Clinical trials registry: Registration in a public trial registry is recommended for publication in Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound. The registry must be accessible to the public at no charge, searchable by electronic methods, open to all prospective registrants free of charge or at minimal cost, and managed by a not-for-profit organization. The registry must also include the following information: a unique identifying number, information on the investigator(s), research hypothesis, methodology, intervention and comparisons, eligibility criteria, primary and secondary outcomes measured, date of registration, anticipated or actual start date, anticipated or actual date of last follow-up, target number of subjects, and funding source.
The following registrations meet these criteria.

The generic chemical identification of all investigational drugs must be provided.

The complete name and location of the manufacturer must be supplied for all reagents, equipment, and devices used in the Methods.

Acknowledgments

The Acknowledgments section recognizes all sources of support for research, plus substantive contributions of individuals. The Editorial Office must receive written, signed consent from each person recognized in the Acknowledgments, since the statement can imply endorsement of data and conclusions.

Written consent is not required for personal staff; however, the role of each person named must be identified either in the Acknowledgments section or in a separate letter or email to the Editorial Office.

Authors must completely spell out all grant funding agency abbreviations.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures

All potential conflicts of interest must be stated within the text of the manuscript, under this heading. This pertains to relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers, or other corporations whose products or services are related to the subject matter of the article. Such relationships include, but are not limited to, employment by an industrial concern, ownership of stock, membership on a standing advisory council or committee, being on the board of directors, or being publicly associated with the company or its products. Other areas of real or perceived conflict of interest could include receiving honoraria or consulting fees or receiving grants or funds from such corporations or individuals representing such corporations.
Please also note that Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound has a new Copyright Transfer Agreement form that now collects this information. This form must be completed by all authors prior to publication.

References

Accuracy of reference data is the responsibility of the author.

Verify all references against original sources.

List all authors for each reference; do not use ‘et al.’

Cite references in numeric order according to first mention in the text. In the text, ensure accuracy of spelling and details of publication, i.e., the text citation should match the reference information.

Personal communications, unpublished observations, and submitted manuscripts are not legitimate references. They must be cited in the text only (not in the reference list) as follows: author name, degree(s) held, unpublished data, year.

Abstracts may be cited only if they are the sole source and must be identified in the reference as abstract.

References must be from a full length publication in a peer reviewed journal.

In press citations must have been accepted for publication and the name of the journal or book publisher must be included.

Figures

Figures should be labeled sequentially, numbered (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.), and cited in the text.

Letters must be uniform in size and style within each figure, and when possible, between figures. (The font size must be 12 point or higher.)

If a table, figure, or any other previously published materials is included, authors must obtain written permission to reproduce the material in both print and electric formats from the copyright owner and submit it with the manuscript. The original source should be cited.

Avoid headings on the figure. Heading information should appear in the figure legend.

Line art should not contain hair lines, which are hard to reproduce

Supply a scale bar with photomicrographs

Limit white space between the panel and panel label

Figure Legends

Legends should be brief and specific, and should appear on a separate manuscript page after the Reference section.

All abbreviations used in an illustration should be expanded in the legend.

Tables

Begin each table on a separate page, double-spaced. Please remember that tables prepared with Excel are not accepted unless embedded within your text document.

The table number should be Arabic, followed by a period and brief title

Use same size type as in text

Supply a brief heading for each column

Indicate footnotes in this order: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, **, ††, ‡‡.

Do not use vertical lines between columns. Use horizontal lines above and below the column headings and at the bottom of the table only. Use extra space to delineate sections within the table.

Abbreviations used in the table must be defined in a footnote to the table.

Supplementary movies

Movies should be labeled and numbered sequentially (Movie 1, Movie 2, etc.) in the text.

Authors are encouraged to submit video clips as supplementary material. The preferred formats for clips of moving images are .MOV, .MPGE, .WMV, or .AVI files that can be easily viewed with commonly-used programs.

Authors are advised to test video clips for playback before submission.

Movie Legends

Legends should be brief and specific, and should appear on a separate manuscript page after the Tables.

All abbreviations should be expanded in the legend.

Ethical Policy

Manuscripts are considered on the understanding that they contain original material, which the manuscript and material within the manuscript have not been published and are not being considered for publications elsewhere in whole or in part in any language, including publicly accessible web sites or e-print servers, except as an abstract. The authors also certify that any and all other work in preparation, submitted, in press, or published that is potentially overlapping either in the actual data presented or in the conceptual approach is enclosed along with the original submission. Any material within the manuscript that has appeared elsewhere must be cross-referenced and permission to use or adapt the material must be received, in writing from the copyright holder.

How to Submit a Manuscript:

Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound uses an online submission and review system. Authors can upload their article at http://submit.kse-jcu.org/. By accessing the website Authors will be guided stepwise through the uploading of the various files. Editable file formats are necessary. We accept most word-processing formats, but Microsoft Word program is preferred. Figure files (TIFF, JPEG, GIFF, EPS and a single slide of Power Point) should be uploaded separately. Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. Save your files using the default extension of the program used. The system generates an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article which is used for the reviewing process. Authors, Reviewers and Editors send and receive all correspondence by email and no paper correspondence is necessary. When your manuscript is ready for submission, please follow the instructions below.

Submission Checklist

It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal's Editor for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.

Ensure That the Following Items are Present:

One Author designated as corresponding Author:

E-mail address

Full postal address

Telephone and fax numbers

Keywords

All figures and figure legend

All tables (including title, description, footnotes)

Manuscript has been "spellchecked" and "grammar-checked"

References are in the correct format for this journal style

All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text.

Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web).

Timely publication of a manuscript will depend upon all of
the above.

Editorial and Peer-Review Process:

All manuscripts submitted by email are sent to the 3 most relevant investigators, for the review of the contents. After the responses of all 3 reviewers within 2 weeks, the editor-in-chief determines the results of the review.

Results of the review would be classified as follows;

1) Accepted: The manuscript will be forwarded to the publisher without further corrections.
2) Minor revisions: The author should address the comments from the reviewers, which will be confirmed by reviewers before being sent to the publisher.
3) Major revisions: The author should address the comments from the reviewers and make the appropriate corrections for review by the three reviewers.
4) Rejection: When one out of the three reviewers rejects the manuscript, the final decision is made by the editorial committee.
5) Statistical Consultation: Review of the manuscript will be done through consultation to a biostatistics expert before acceptance for those that require statistical editing.

All submissions, requests, revisions, and response letters are promptly delivered to email of the corresponding author, reviewer or editors by email.

The editorial function of PDF or tracking function of Microsoft Word program is recommended to be used to every reviewer and author for revision.

If a manuscript is accepted for publication, the editor-in-chief sends an acceptance letter to the author by email.

Disclaimer

Statements, opinions, and results of studies published in Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound are those of the authors and do not reflect the policy or position of the Korean Society of Echocardiography, and the Korean Society of Echocardiography provides no warranty as to their accuracy or reliability.

EndNote output styles for JCU

Once the file(s) is downloaded to your desktop, copy the file(s) to the appropriate folder in your EndNote program directory (usually located in Windows-C:Program FilesEndNoteStyles or Mac OS X-Harddrive:Applications:EndNote:Styles).

THE ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Principle 1 (Purpose)

These principles are established for providing fundamental principle and guidance for investigators who submit the articles to Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound to prevent dishonesty and to assure research ethics on the bases of the management policy of registration-journal in Korean Research Foundation.

Principle 2 (Ethics of the Articles)

Research providers who want to submit their articles should compose their articles on the base of following ethical principles.

1) In researches involving human subjects, Research investigators should explain to the subjective patients or their care-providers the purpose of the research and physical or psychological hazard that could be possibly acquired while participating in the research. Research investigators should also state and accomplish approval from the patients or their care-providers by the WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION DECLARATION OF HELSINKI (www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm)
2) In researches involving animal subjects, Research investigators should state what they perform to reduce the pain and discomfort of subjective animals. It is principle that procedures did not conflict with regulations of ethics committee of corresponding institute or NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
(www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/labrats/index.html)
3) Research investigators should obey the regulations of ethics committee of corresponding institute, and committee of the editors could demand informed consent and permission of ethics committee of corresponding institute.

Principle 3 (Dishonesty on the Article)

Journal will not be published if there is dishonesty just below.

1) Forgery: the production, documentation, or report of a spurious result or data of the research or that is claimed to be genuine.
2) Fabrication: the alteration, or omission of the research outcome and manipulation of the research material, instruments, or procedures
3) Plagiarism: the unauthorized use or close imitation of the thoughts, procedures, results, or record of other research investigators and the representation of them as one’s own original work.
4) Repetitive publication: the publication or submission of article that has been already published or is now being published in other journals.

Principle 4 (Penalty on the Dishonesty)

If an article turns out to be dishonest, Korean Society of Echo-cardiography should penalize as following.

1) Penalty
A. Cancellation of corresponding published article from the Journal
B. Inhibition of further publication or submission to the Journal for at least consecutive 3 years.
C. Announcement of the corresponding dishonesty in the official website of Korean Society of Echocardiography
D. Report of detail of the corresponding dishonesty to Korea Research Foundation

2) Committee of the editors takes the responsibility of investigation of the corresponding dishonesty, and the board of directors takes the responsibility of final deliberation and decision.